In skimming the forums here, I've heard a few people mention they've gotten a Sparc 5 to run Gentoo, but I'm having an issue getting past the first step on my Sparc 5. I boot from the CD (I've tried minimal and universal), which launches SILO, and then it goes:

Code:

boot: gentoo

Fatal error: Image too large to fit in destination

Error loading /boot/gentoo

Image not found.... try again
boot:

What space/partition is that command trying to copy files into? RAM? I see from the silo.conf that the 'gentoo' image is also passing "root=/dev/ram0"; does that mean it's trying to open into RAM and my station has just to pitifully little? Is there any way I can pass a different root command to have it open to the hard drive instead?

The system has a Solaris 9 install on it at the moment, and I'm using a non-Sun CD drive, but other than that I don't know what might be interfering. Anyone have an idea?

Last edited by midnightlightning on Tue Apr 18, 2006 3:43 pm; edited 2 times in total

Nobody knows (or nobody wants to reply)? Okay, how about this question: Is there a command that I can use from the "ok" prompt (or in a Solaris 9 shell) that would let me know how much memory the system thinks is installed? How about determining what processor speed the chip is? I know I've read reports on other Linux distros failing to install on a 170 Mhz chip, and I don't quite know if that's what I've got. Yes I could take a screwdriver to it and see if I can read off the label on the chip, but that would involve (a) finding a screwdriver, and (b) tearing down and rebuilding my tower-o-pizza-box-servers _________________"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguisable from magic." -- Arthur C. Clarke

You're not giving enough information, is that a sparcstation 5 or an ultra 5?

I'm sorry; it's a SparcStation 5. I've actually got two; one with a SparcStation 5 case and one with a SparcServer 5 case (but don't know for certain if the insides match the outsides since the cases are interchangable, and both are secondhand). Does that help?_________________"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguisable from magic." -- Arthur C. Clarke

We currently only provide Installation CDs for the sparc64 architecture. Users of sparc32 can use the experimental netboot images to install Gentoo from. More information about netbooting can be found in our Gentoo/SPARC Netboot HOWTO

I looked into this, however in reading the Netboot instructions, I found out that I'd need another Gentoo install to use that method, which I don't have. So I kept reading, and further down in the handbook:

Sparc Handbook wrote:

While Gentoo still offers stage1 and stage2 tarballs, the official installation method uses the stage3 tarball. If you are interested in performing a Gentoo installation using a stage1 or stage2 tarball, please read the Gentoo FAQ on How do I Install Gentoo Using a Stage1 or Stage2 Tarball?

When following that link, I learned that:

Gentoo FAQ wrote:

The Gentoo Handbook only describes a Gentoo installation using a stage3 tarball. However, Gentoo still provides stage1 and stage2 tarballs. This is for development purposes (the Release Engineering team starts from a stage1 tarball to obtain a stage3) but shouldn't be used by users: a stage3 tarball can very well be used to bootstrap the system. You do need a working Internet connection.

Bootstrapping means building the toolchain (the C library and compiler) for your system after which you install all core system packages. To bootstrap the system, perform a stage3 installation. Before you start the chapter on Configuring the Kernel, modify the bootstrap.sh script to suit your needs and then run it:

(Emphasis mine) I had found that on the download mirrors, under sparc32, there were only stages tarballs, not installation CDs, so I figured this was what I needed to do. I took that emphasized section to mean that I should go back to the Sparc handbook and install it as normal, up through the Configuring the Kernel step, which is how I wound up mired in the error above. I'm guessing I'm misinterpreting how to install from a Stage1 or Stage2 Tarball. Is there any more documentation on this?

P.S. the FAQ seems to turn rather abruptly from Stage1/2 installs to bootstrapping; is there just a section header missing, and that paragraph break should really be a section break to start a bootstrapping section?

stage1/2 installations are deprecated, and believe me when you don't want to take that approach for sparc32.
Check in the historical directory in the mirrors for a sparc32 iso image, there should be one around.
I'll probably make a new one at some point when i get someone to be my guinea pig to test._________________Gustavo Zacarias
Gentoo/SPARC monkey

::goes dumpster diving in the historical folder::
Aha! Found something promising in the 2004.1 release. At least, it's labeled "sparc" rather than "sparc64" (install-sparc-universal-2004.1.iso), so I'm hopeful. I'll be burning a disk tonight when I get home to my burner, and trying it tomorrow!_________________"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguisable from magic." -- Arthur C. Clarke

After some futzing around with ethX numbers to find which ethernet port was live, I have successfully booted past the above error using the 2004.1 Universal CD, and am currently downloading the Stage3 tarball for the 2006.0 version to continue the installation; though on my internet connection, that's looking to take 4 hours...